Monday, November 13, 2017

i turned 47! the greenhouse wished me a happy birthday by still producing! thank you greenhouse!

jambaloney bought me 100 bobby pins which i go through like mad! he also gave me another wonderful present which i will tell you about later.

he also dug up the rest of the carrots.

they are just baby carrots from the second round of planting but they are soooo tasty! he brought the box in for me to trim the tops...and in the time it took me to open the scissors drawer to get a pair of scissors - this happened:

that cat can smell a box from 18 miles away. i had to pick him up 3 times and move him and he kept getting in the box! finally i had to put him outdoors!

we don't really celebrate our birthdays but this year i wanted to do something different - i wanted to take my big sis C for a facial. so november 10th is when i got my real birthday gift. jambaloney paid for me and my big sis C to go and have facials and a nice lunch together. here she is in all of her glory and beautiful smile.

of course, it was rainy and windy all day long. we had planned to go walking along the canal. we drove to the canal and stayed in the car.

here she is in a little cafe that we found. beautiful!

we went to a christmas store which was actually a flower shop, and then finally made it to the actual christmas store...it's too difficult to explain. we were hanging on to telephone poles and each other trying not to blow away! and then there were the sheets of rain belting us in the head!

C got some cute little christmas balls for her grandchildren.

while we were at the canal we noticed these lovely latrines.

it was the only place i could have a cigarette without being stormed on! we went back a few times throughout the day.

here we are grinning like fools because we are now heading off to our facials.

C has never had a facial (not like she needs one - the woman doing her facial told her how beautiful her skin is!). so we each went into a room and both of us came out drunk. or that's how we felt! i fell off the bed trying to put my clothes back on and C said she was hanging on to chairs and other furniture to get her clothes on. they gave us beautiful facials but they also rubbed all kinds of stuff in our hair. C said her hair was sticking straight up and that she looked like bart simpson. so she asked to go to the bathroom to fix her hair and she wobbled down the hall from one side of the wall to the other because she could barely walk. i completely understood - i could barely see and was wobbly too!

we laughed and laughed and C is even considering doing another one, with our other friends, in the future. she thanked me for a beautiful day and i thanked her. it was a wonderful time out with my sis.

november 11th. when we were kids at school we always celebrated Remembrance Day. and our town always had a Remembrance Day parade. i always enjoyed the parade and through grade 7-12 i was always in the parade - our cheerleading squads were always part of the parade. and all the members of the legion marched and people waved and cheered. it was lovely!

i always felt special knowing that my grandmother, an immigrant, served in the military. i have her service card.

and i have mine.

i have a proper service card with stamps and signatures and whatnot but sometime in the early 90's we were issued with new military numbers which used to be our social security numbers. i can still rhyme off my social security number and military number without blinking an eye.

i'm a little late in saying thank you to all who served but i think that most of you know that i am and always will be thankful. to those who served and their families. not much is said about the wives and sons and daughters of serving men - but to me - their job was the toughest.

so that's been my last few days. now i gotta go harvest some more tomatoes - woohoo!

we made and canned 40 different broths/stocks (we made beef, chicken and chicken with turkey).

more beautiful days even when cloudy.

and then pizza. we think we are off the pizza. neither of us felt well after eating it.

but striped bass? there is plenty! jambaloney is allowed to catch one a day and one bass gives us easily 3 meals. imagine?

this free striped bass meal came with our own potatoes, tomatoes, brussel sprouts and poor man's capers (which are delicious i must add!!!). the remaining cooked bass became breakfast fishcakes the next morn.

so many free meals and so many beautiful days.

harvests looked like this.

i love zucchini fritters so whenever i have one we make them. notice the tomatoes and also notice the beautiful bird's eye chili peppers that my friend Dani from South Africa sent me.

the kicker with that salad is the homemade thick carrot-ginger dressing.

oh and river days.

the sun stayed with us on our whole trip.

it led us straight to a new island that has a bit of a beach.

we, of course, named the island "ours". we name all of the islands we find "ours". these islands we find are amazing - no foot traffic or old paths, no garbage or beer bottles or anything like that. these islands really are "OURS".

we like a homemade sweet and sour chicken every now and again.

but salads are a must in our house. almost everything in this salad came from our greenhouses. in october????

but we've been having such gorgeous days!

and eating lots of different salads.

corn. can you ever get enough corn in the autumn? i could eat it every day for 3 months!

yum. told ya i love zucchini fritters.

the beach.

we know it is a beautiful and serene place but now we call it "the free food place".

that baby was cooked up pronto with some bok choi and grapes.

more beautiful days.

and harvests.

and the alpine strawberries that jamie dug out of the hugelkulture (that thing was full of weeds), he replanted them in pots in the greenhouse.

all of them are flowering and putting out berries. woohoo for us!

korean pancake. stuffed to the gills with green onion, cabbage and carrot. deevine!

the squash harvest.

they went in late and didn't really get a chance to ripen. i am taking no chances being it november and all - so i am going to try and ripen them on window ledges.

a ton of grilled veg on rice. nothing more needs to be said.

fish and chips. made with free-from-the-beach-striped-bass and our own potatoes.

with deep fried shrimp and musshroom. homemade tartar sauce and kimchi. best fish and chips ever!

my two young friends S and K wanted to put the glowsticks on my buns. i gave all my girlfriends spider rings to wear. we had a blast and a hoot and a half. a great time was had by all.

my Big Sis C bought a bunch of pumpkins to put on her deck and then told us we could have them. don't mind that at all, i sure don't! tons of roasted pumpkin and pumpkin soup coming up this winter. not to mention all of those delicious pumpkin seeds!

well, i must have bored you all to tears by now! but we have had a wonderful october and november is looking just as good.

we're hoping that you are enjoying autumn 2017 as much as we are!!!! xox

Friday, October 20, 2017

anyway - our driveway needs work - i normally do it by hand but at 160 feet down and 60 feet by the house - this has been harder and harder work ... so let's say hellooooo to the back blade!!!

first off i had to remove the backhoe - it was fairly easy - the bx23s comes with an advances coupling system - one person can remove the backhoe...

and install a 3 point hitch and a blade!!

i made sure to get a heavy duty model with various pitch and offset capabilities...

i started with the top part of the driveway... it is rutted and runoff goes all over the place..

i have never done this before but the idea is to grade it so the runoff goes down either side only...

after a bit of practice - i got the hang of it...

continuing around to the big part..

overgrown and rutted big time - the rain does a number!!

back to the top - i want the runoff to go around the corner here...

several passes and building up the middle

and a bit of practice on the downhill..

and quite a few passes required!!!

work at the bottom...

flatter and wider..

a LOT wider!!!

the round about took some work to get right...

back towards the house...

but finally results - rain on one side goes around this corner..

and on the other side this shallow trench...

here you can see both..

and final passes at the top made mini ditches

byproduct...

lots...

of...

ROCKS!!!!

the pics are a month old - the driveway is holding up great - it needs a bit more work to be ready for winter - but it will be MUCH easier to clear - plus we have a traktor now - saved a pile of $$ too so the traktor is paying itself off!!

i have been trying to get the right time for striped bass nailed - this morning was high tide and overcast at sunrise.. supoosed to be good - pretty ominous looking when i got to the beach

but it started clearing up..

when it is high tide the ocean actually flows into the mouth of the framboise river - this is called the "gut" around here..

the sun is really coming up now...

and for sweet sandy... a nice striped bass !!!!

Hope you are all having a great October - cheers!

(kymber interrupts and says traktor is really named "drunk tractor-dura"!)

About Framboise Manor

Framboise Manor is our Bug-Out Location (BOL) that we have been living in since December 2010. As can be seen by the above picture - calling it simply a "Manor" doesn't do it justice - we bet you think it is more like an "Estate", eh?

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Who Are We?

we are jambaloney and kymber. here's a pic of us below...we look very happy and content. it's because we really are!

About jambaloney

(he's only 23 in this pic...he has 20+years of additional muscle now...if you can believe it!)

kymber here and talking about jambaloney.

i've always called him my angel. my rock. my best half. the best part of what i have always wanted to become.

he has a soul as big as the biggest mountain, he is strong, he is in incredible physical condition, he is 51 and yet most people think he is under 40. he is humble and modest, charming, gorgeous and will help anyone with anything at anytime. he never grumbles and only every now and again complains or is a tiny bit cranky (nothing that a hug can't fix!). he can cut both sides out of 70 tires in minutes, build raised beds from scrap wood that he drags out of the forest, weedwhack 800ft of our road down to the river, and haul more wheelbarrows of dirt, mulch, rocks and seaweed than is probably medically-advised. he's learned how to braid, make bread and no one makes better rice - not even the chinese. he supports my every, crazy endevour. he went 44 years without a driver's license and got his license after being trained by my crazily-wonderful french canadian friend in 2 weeks. she never stopped talking the whole time. in french.

he has biked everywhere his entire life, at one job he biked 24km EACH WAY. that's to and from! 24km to work AND 24km from work! oh and just accidentally has an honours degree in philosophy.

i believe that he is Our Lord's most beautiful and perfect creation. but i might be biased. he can very accurately shoot a ben pearson cougar re-curve from both the left and right. and his aim is dead on.

he is bow-legged and only 5'7", but has the most incredible eyes. and a tiny mole on his upper lip. he writes the most romantic "insta-poems". he tells me he loves me several times a day. he calls me "babe" and "honey". and he means it.he loves hot sauce and spicey things like cayenne and banana peppers, he buys (or now picks) me flowers, he left a lucrative, high-paying IT job and his family to follow me here to this remote little island. he builds me shelves and washes all of our laundry with me by hand.

oh and he was baptized Anglican. and was an alter boy. sheesh. somehow, through my intervention, i am turning him into a pagan-christian-fundamentalist-confuscian. look, even i can't figure that out!

the name jambaloney is a nickname that i gave him over 10 years ago. he still uses it. he can be reached at "jambaloney@gmail.com". he loves comments or emails. and he loves me.

if i were given the opportunity to wish one thing for the world - i would wish that every woman on the planet had a jambaloney. i know that i could save the world this way. i have friends who have asked me to clone him. i am trying. believe me, i am trying. one day i will perfect the science involved, and when that happens, i promise all of you a jambaloney.

i love him more than...breathing, lobster, boiled dinner, fresh bread out of the oven, bugging out, singing back up for Madonna (ok...i made that one up!), fresh sheets on the bed, a glass of red wine after a long day, sunflower seeds, lavender, growing my own potatoes, T.S. Eliot, dancing, my babies (who are really just cranky old cats!) and the Bible.

i love him more than i love Framboise Manor. and i really love Framboise Manor.

About kymber

(this pic might seem odd. trust me, it's not. 20 yrs ago kymber went shopping with a girlfriend from the military and bought this dress. then she hooked up with that girlfriend recently. they caught up through email and one day kymberz friend mentioned that specific dress. kymber said she still had it (kymber still has her prom gown for crying out loud!). the friend did not believe it. so we had to take a pic of kymber wearing the 20yr old dress for her friend. kymber always likes to add accessories...and well, we had the bunny ears laying around. ya know, cuz everyone always has pink bunny ears laying around. ok, that's it...i am out of here! jambaloney)

what can i say about kymber?? A LOT!!most of it will have to wait for blog entries ‘cuz i just don’t have enough space here to do her justice…

so i’ll have to do my best… first and foremost, kymber is my partner and i will love her forever. she is the best partner anyone could ever have, i am one lucky guy!! she is 46, she is sweet as can be, smart as a whip, super cute, exceptionally feminine, strong as an ox, honest, kind, empathetic, wise, an amazing dancer, a master wit in speaking and writing….i could go on..i will!

at 5’ 1’’ she packs a wallop – a true force of nature -she is a master gardener and chef and spent 10 years in the Canadian Military – she has done 2 tours of Alert (the north bloody-cold pole). she is a UN-certified Korean linguist and spoils our 2 cats rotten. she also spent 12yrs working in the federal government, as a communications analyst at SolGen (now PSEPC) and Fintrac. she loves nature in the true sense of the phrase..the wildflowers, insects and birds here at framboise manor keep her entranced and captivated for hours.

anyone who is her friend knows that she will stop at nothing to help and heal, dedication and loyalty are an integral part of who she is and she is dead serious about anything she puts her mind to. yet she maintains the most delicate touch and a smile on her face always, never afraid to live and love no matter where and when.

she is the most genuine human being i have ever met! and she has encouraged me to embark on the most crazy and exciting adventure i could imagine… thank you babe - i sooo love you!!!